Stomach is the way to a woman's heart, too Study shows that women's brains respond more to romantic cues on a full stomach

You've heard that romance starts in the kitchen and not in the bedroom. Well, researchers at Drexel University finally have the science to support that saying -- but not the way you might think.

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You've heard that romance starts in the kitchen and not in the bedroom. Well, researchers at Drexel University finally have the science to support that saying -- but not the way you might think.

In a new study published online in the journal Appetite, researchers found that women's brains respond more to romantic cues on a full stomach than an empty one. The study explored brain circuitry in hungry versus satiated states among women who were past-dieters and those who had never dieted.

The study's first author Alice Ely, PhD, completed the research while pursuing a doctoral degree at Drexel, and is now a postdoctoral research fellow at the Eating Disorders Center for Treatment and Research, part of the UC San Diego School of Medicine. Michael R. Lowe, PhD, a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at Drexel University, was senior author.

"We found that young women both with and without a history of dieting had greater brain activation in response to romantic pictures in reward-related neural regions after having eaten than when hungry," said Ely.

Ely said the results are contrary to several previous studies, which showed that people typically demonstrate greater sensitivity to rewarding stimuli when hungry. Such stimuli may include things like food, money and drugs.

"In this case, they were more responsive when fed," she said. "This data suggests that eating may prime or sensitize young women to rewards beyond food. It also supports a shared neurocircuitry for food and sex."

The latest finding, based on a small pilot study, grew from Ely and her Drexel colleagues' earlier work investigating how the brain changes in response to food cues. Specifically, the researchers looked at whether the brain's reward response to food differed significantly in women at risk for future obesity (historical dieters) versus those who had never dieted. All of the study participants were young, college-age women of normal weight.

In that study, published in Obesity in 2014, the researchers found that the brains of women with a history of dieting responded more dramatically to positive food cues when fed as compared to women who had never dieted or who were currently dieting.

"In the fed state, historical dieters had a greater reaction in the reward regions than the other two groups to highly palatable food cues versus neutral or moderately palatable cues," she said. Highly palatable cues included foods like chocolate cake; neutral cues were things like carrots.

Ely said the data suggests historical dieters, who longitudinal studies have shown are more at risk for weight gain, may be predisposed by their brain reward circuitry to desire food more than people who have not dieted.

"Based on this study, we hypothesized that historical dieters are differentially sensitive -- after eating -- to rewards in general, so we tested this perception by comparing the same groups' brain activation when viewing romantic pictures compared to neutral stimuli in a fasted and fed state," she said. Testing was done using MRI imaging.

While both groups' reward centers responded more to romantic cues when fed, the historical dieters' neural activity noticeably differed from the non-dieters in one brain region that had also turned up in the earlier food studies.

"The pattern of response was similar to historical dieter's activation when viewing highly palatable food cues, and is consistent with research showing overlapping brain-based responses to sex, drugs and food," said Ely.

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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Drexel University. The original item was written by Alex McKechnie. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Keeping Food Safe At Home

September is National Food Safety Education Month and this year, the Partnership for Food Safety Education, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Food and Drug Administration are trying to debunk some common myths about keeping food safe in the refrigerator.

Use a Thermometer

Feeling the cold air when you open the refrigerator door isn’t enough to know that your food is cold enough. It should be at or below 40 degrees F to slow bacterial growth, but you can’t know it’s cold enough unless you use a thermometer. That dial you use to adjust the temperature is important, but it’s not a thermometer.

As many as 43 percent of home refrigerators have been found to be at temperatures above 40 degrees F, putting them in the food safety “danger zone” where harmful bacteria can multiply. In her studies, Christine Bruhn, retired director of the Center for Consumer Research at the University of California, has seen around 13 percent of consumers’ refrigerators with temperatures above 45 degrees F.

If you measure the temperature and it’s above 40 degrees F, use the dial to adjust the temperature so it will be colder. Use your refrigerator thermometer to measure again later.

Refrigerate Food After Two Hours

Refrigerator temperatures can slow the growth of bacteria, but won’t stop it completely. This is why you should refrigerate or freeze meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, cut fresh fruits and vegetables, and all cooked leftovers within two hours of cooking or purchasing and within one hour if it’s a really hot day.

This is also why you can only keep perishables for a few days in the fridge.

Keep Your Fridge Clean

Bacteria can survive and some even grow in cool, moist environments like the refrigerator. Listeria can grow at temperatures below 40 degrees F.

To reduce the risk of cross-contamination, clean up any spills immediately, regularly clean your fridge with hot water and soap, and keep fresh fruits and vegetables separate from raw meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs.

And don’t think you can skip cleaning the produce bin because you only keep fruit and vegetables in there. A recent NSF International study found that the refrigerator produce compartment was the “germiest” area in consumers’ kitchens.

After washing bins with hot water and liquid soap, rinse them thoroughly, and dry with a clean cloth towel or allow to air-dry outside of the refrigerator.